#paleverse

[ganurath]

I am sorely, painfully tempted to reread Pale with intent to bring the relevant wiki up to date.

[ganurath]

This was tricky to find since I was only posted an image of it rather than being linked, but I felt mentioning various Wildbow web serials was worth the effort.

people have got to learn the difference between I didnt like it and It was bad

[theaudientvoid]

Issue 9 of Department of Truth features a Department spook lecturing about occultism and symbolic ritual magic for most of the issue, leading up to the reveal that one of the way the Department reshapes reality is by hiding subliminal images in porn. "I got thousands of magic wands casting my spells." And it occurs to me that this could totally be a valid practice in the Pact/Paleverse.

[verminfang]

Anyway I guess we know exactly where Sy would end up in Paleverse

[ganurath]

There is nothing in this world that you can enjoy that can't be used as a reason to tell you to read Pale. Name a thing, and I will find a reason.

[ganurath]

I hereby announce myself!

[ganurath]

Good art, but now my brain's fixated on figuring out which practitioners would be best to fill out that particular theme of roster.

Mary, Taylor, and Sveta playing Cat's Cradle with various types of 'string'.

Commissioned by @john-cherry-the-6th.

instagram | commission info

[ganurath]

I think you may enjoy reading Pale. Why?

Author: It's by the same author as Worm, but with a decade more experience in writing, with an overall improvement in quality that shows it.

Interesting Systems: It's an urban fantasy where the magic system has had literally thousands of years to be studied, is simple enough at the fundamental level that a casual reader won't be confused, and the nuances of it open up an even wider variety of potential than parahuman trigger events.

Mentally Ill Gay People: Of the three girls who are the rotating protagonists, one of them hyperfixates on magic, and another is unambiguously a lesbian.

Scarfing Content Relentlessly: At time of posting, the word count tracking document puts Pale at 3,167,919 words. It's not done.

Love of Worm: Wildbow sprinkles his stories with references to his other stories through the various media of the setting. There was recently one that filled the Worm fans in the readership with all sorts of hype.

Subtleties and Themes Fly Over Head: Characters with magic can't tell explicit falsehoods, but they can omit and imply to get around the truth. The impact on dialogue makes subtleties easy to pick up on, to the point that improved the real-world social skills of my autistic ass.

The Hook: I'm going to close this with a non-spoiler quote from Pale that I'm hoping will make you curious. Even if it doesn't, perhaps the words will give you or someone who looks at your reblogs... something positive.

“Grieve.  This is your bitter lot.  Harder than most.  Then once you’re finished grieving for the time being, step forward as you’ve been doing so wonderfully, these past two decades.  Advance into this headwind that’s been set perpetually against you.  Step forward into this dark, bloody night, because there is a moment coming where you’re due to laugh harder than you ever have.  To love your hardest.  Or where you’ve found a place with a view that makes it all worth it.  Your moment could be a person, or it could be a milestone reached.  It could be a show or a book you come to hold close to your heart, or a passion for a career or hobby that brings light to inner places you thought would be forever dark.  So long as you persist, there is goodness out there.  There is no way that you, in your beautiful mortality, can stand at a sword’s point and imply you’re willing to give it all up for your answers, when you haven’t even scratched the surface of the experiences out there.  You don’t know what you’d be giving up.  I do.  I have seen enough of those things to know them like I know what that earring is.  I do believe it is worth your time and endurance.”

It was either this or the Sperm Cell POV segment.

I feel like a bottom feeder of the worm community, I have absolutely no media standards whatsoever.

Worm scratches the carnal urges I have for a unique and interesting power system and a bunch of mentally ill gay people to torture and ship, but I dont notice much else. People will point out the subtleties and themes I miss and I go “oh wow thats so cool, I never thought of that” and then go straight back to shoveling Alt-power stories and Pillbug(Skitterpan) fics down my gullet. I am almost certain a LOT of my worm takes are completely wrong (Amy dallon could be redeemed and is a product of circumstance, Aura theory, etc) but tbh I don’t have enough power to understand higher concepts.

[ganurath]

Fugly Bob proved to be awesome, in a way that can't be fully appreciated without knowledge of Pale's plot intricacies. You'll have to read Pale if you want to know the full splendor of Fugly Bob's accomplishments.

my dearest readers of pale of wormblr. i have come in peace to ask for your aid. besseching of thee to riddle me this. what the fuck happened with fugly bob did we get any resolution on that or what

[ganurath]

The question wasn't about Avery Kelly RP blogs.

Whats ur opinion on the rp blogs running around pretending to be Victoria dallon?

They can pretend all they want, they'll never match perfection.

[ganurath]

"I wouldn't have thought the words would've been binding, since I wasn't Awakened at the time.''

Death nodded, acknowledging the point. The Incarnate glanced toward the echo floating next to her. "You were both Aware at the time, though, and this one was fool enough to speak of the debt during his Awakening."

"Yeah, that'd do it. It's moments like this that I'm tempted to be sarcastic. Still, I wouldn't have made the joke if my family practice couldn't make use of-" I paused as I rose from the couch, noticing a reaction of apprehension from the echo. They aren't normally that aware of their surroundings. After I finished standing up, I stuck a food out to one side, being careful not to lift it to where the coffee table wouldn't block the echo's vision. Even so, transparent eyes tracked the movement. I pointed at the echo and turned my gaze to the Incarnate who'd brought it. Him? "Lucid?"

"The debt didn't make him linger; it just dictated his destination in the event that he did. No, this one was the victim of treachery of a sufficiently explicit nature that offense was taken by the greater powers," Death smirked, "namely me."

Oh, no. This had all the signs of being a political drama of the sort that got people killed. "The delivery isn't free, is it?"

"Delivering the echo is an obligation of my nature. However, the necromantic specialization of your family is the sort that could benefit from an Incarnate of Death providing lessons, an empowered item, or a different boon of similar value."

"You think you can bribe me into doing what you want?"

Death shrugged. "If you prefer, I could bribe your father into telling you to do what I want."

Fuuuuck. "Why me?"

"The offending party comes from a family that works heavily with the Incarnate forces of Nature. Their general knowledge of the Incarnate is sufficient for him to repel me. Also, while the treachery is offensive, he was careful enough with the wording of his promises and such that not even gainsaying is an option, let alone foreswearing."

I nodded, considering. Incarnate magic tended toward big, dramatic effects that shifted an engagement in favor of the practitioner, using the themes of the specific Incarnate. For Nature... it'd be something very visceral, so the best approach was likely to focus on the immaterial so as to circumvent the target's defenses. "Anyone I know?"

"Keith Carya."

Kei- Wait. I remembered that name. "Did he also mention his debt during his Awakening ritual?"

"Of course not." Well, that- "His Awakening came before he promised his soul to you."

For fuck's sake!

“Sure, it’ll only cost you your soul” you used to jokingly say whenever you did something for free. Everyone always got a laugh out of it, and so did you! Until the first soul showed up in your living room with a very, very tired looking reaper.